The present disclosure generally relates to building materials and, more particularly, to acoustical sound proofing materials that reduce the transmission of sound from one room to an adjacent room. Methods of making the acoustical sound proofing material are also disclosed.
Noise control is a rapidly growing economic and public policy concern for the construction industry. Areas with high acoustical isolation (commonly referred to as ‘soundproofed’) are requested and required for a variety of purposes. Apartments, condominiums, hotels, schools and hospitals all require rooms with doors, walls, ceilings and floors that reduce the transmission of sound thereby minimizing, or eliminating, the disturbance to people in adjacent rooms. Soundproofing is particularly important in buildings adjacent to public transportation, such as highways, airports and railroad lines. One measure of the severity of multi-party residential and commercial noise control issues is the widespread emergence of model building codes and design guidelines that specify minimum Sound Transmission Class (STC) ratings for specific wall and door structures within a building.
In the past, walls typically were made up of studs with drywall on both exterior surfaces of the studs and baffles or plates commonly placed between the studs in an attempt to reduce the transmission of sound from one room to the next. Unfortunately, even the best of such walls using standard drywall are capable of only reducing sound transmission by approximately 30 db, and much of that is focused on mid-range and high frequencies rather than lower frequencies which cause most of residential and commercial complaints.
Various techniques and products have emerged to abate this problem. For example, replacement of wooden studs by steel studs, resilient channels to offset and isolate drywall panels from studs, mass-loaded vinyl barriers, cellulose sound-board, cellulose and fiberglass batt insulation, and techniques such as staggered-beam and double-beam construction. All help reduce the transmission of noise, but, again, not to such an extent that certain sounds (e.g., lower frequencies, high decibel) in a given room are prevented from being transmitted to an adjacent room, including rooms above or below.
Accordingly, a need remains for an acoustical sound proofing material and a new method of construction to reduce the transmission of sound from a given room to an adjacent room.
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/352,142 filed Jun. 7, 2010, 2010, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by this reference.